One of the most difficult skills to master in sports is to hit a baseball or a softball. Many hours of practice are required to develop and improve this skill as well as to simply maintain it.
Baseball players have several options with regard to developing and practicing their hitting skills. One option is to have a coach or teammate pitch the ball to them. While this is satisfactory in some instances, it is not totally successful for several reasons. One reason is that there is a certain skill level required to pitch batting practice, and people with this skill are in short supply for many teams. Still further, since each player should have as many hours practice as possible, the limited number of batting practice pitchers becomes a problem, especially for large teams. Second, even if a player or coach has well-developed batting practice pitching skills, he or she may not be as consistent as may be required to fully develop batting skills. Third, the batting practice pitcher may simply not be available when a particular player wishes to practice his or her batting skills.
Therefore, many teams and organizations have opted to use a pitching machine for batting practice. However, while overcoming many of the just-mentioned problems and being consistent and not susceptible to becoming tired, pitching machines have had their own problems and drawbacks. For example, these machines may be expensive thereby precluding a single team from owning one, or more, pitching machines. Furthermore, these machines often require a cage so batted balls are confined to a limited area. A batting cage makes the overall machine, as now known in the art, cumbersome and even more expensive. Such batting cages may also take up so much space as to infringe upon other practice areas. The maintenance and storage of pitching machines and batting cages makes them prohibitive for all but certain organizations to own. Many little league, high schools, independent organizations, as well as some colleges and even some professional organizations simply cannot afford a pitching machine for one or more of the above-mentioned reasons. However, the need for batting practice at all skill levels remains even though resources may be limited.
Therefore, there is a need for a pitching machine that can be made available to any player who wants to practice his or her batting skills.
The art includes batting cages that are owned and operated by special companies. These cages are often found at amusement parks or the like, and can also be found at training facilities of some large organizations. Some communities own such machines. However, this does not solve all of the above-mentioned problems, especially for small organizations with limited funds. Often these pitching machines are designed for the widest variety of applications, and are not specific enough to certain skills that a particular coach is advocating or teaching. Still further, these machines may not be adaptable to use in teaching skills other than hitting, such as fielding or the like.
Therefore, there is a need for a batting practice machine that is versatile and can be readily available to a wide range of users.
Many coaches advocate taking batting practice right before a game. At the present time, this is achieved using batting practice pitchers. However, these pitchers cannot give each batter as much time as he or she may desire, and pre-game batting practice time for a player may be limited to less than that particular player desires or needs at that time. In fact, a particular player may even desire to take some practice during a game. However, at the present time, this is not possible in most cases.
Many professional teams are constantly seeking ways to increase fan interest. One way has been to have some sort of activity prior to the game, such as occurs prior to games such as the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. One possible activity that could be used is a batting cage. However, the cost and size of such cages as are now available may prohibit this activity for all but a few teams.
Therefore, there is a need for a batting cage that can be used at a ball park.
The art contains some disclosures of batting cages that can be transported by a tractor-trailer type prime mover. While this type of device is somewhat portable and thus approaches solutions to some of the above-mentioned problems, it still has several drawbacks. For example, such known batting cages are still cumbersome to move and maneuver. Therefore, certain areas, such as parking lots or small practice fields, may not be accessible to such devices. Indeed, the size of such machines and their transport equipment may even prohibit them from moving on some roads. Still further, the size and need for a tractor-type prime mover may make these devices expensive. The known devices using a tractor-type prime mover often have the batting cage permanently attached to the prime mover. Therefore, if the cage is to remain in one place, the prime mover must also remain in that location thereby prohibiting that prime mover from being used elsewhere. Also, if repair work must be done on any of the system elements, all elements of the system are put out of order. This can be very expensive. Still further, many of these devices are not amenable to use in areas other than batting practice, such as fielding or the like. Still further, these devices are not amenable to use in even different batting skills, such as fast pitch or slow pitch conditions. Setting up and/or dismantling some of the known devices may be complicated, time consuming and expensive thereby limiting their versatility and areas of use.
Therefore, there is a need for a device that can be easily set up and left in place and still be economical. There is a further need for a device that is versatile and maneuverable.
Still further, for the above-discussed reasons, especially economy, there is a need for a system that can be easily adapted for use to practice a variety of sports, such as, but not limited to, golf, soccer, lacrosse, football and the like.